Palm Sunday & Holy Week

Wow, we’re at Holy Week already! That was fast…and kind of slow actually. Lent can be soooo long! Especially if we’ve really tried to enter into it with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is supposed to be tough, to whip us into spiritual shape, so by the time we get to Holy Week and Easter, we’re ready to truly enter into Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

So, what can we do to enter into Holy Week? That’s a great question – and there’s no way we could come up with an exhaustive list here – you have Holy Week every year for the rest of your life to do all sorts of things to journey with Jesus to the Cross during this time. But here are some thoughts, and we’ll look at it through the lens of the “why” behind each of our Lenten Disciplines.

During Lent, we fast which works on our relationship with ourselves and helps us grow in self-control and discipline. We recommit to, or take on extra prayer to work on our relationship with God (and fasting does that too when we offer it up as penance for our sins or for another intention). And we give alms to the poor, reminding us that we’re all in this together and that we need each other; there are no solo Christians – our faith is always experienced and lived out in the context of community.

So, what can we do for Holy Week in the category of fasting and discipline? Well for one, keep up your Lenten practices. Technically, Lent ends on Holy Thursday, but since Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence from meat anyway, most people keep their Lenten sacrifices up until Easter Sunday (or Saturday night after the Easter Vigil). Many people also increase their penances and sacrifices just for the week or take on some additional things. I had friends in college who, on top of their regular Lenten sacrifices, would give up their bed and sleep on the floor during Holy Week. I know someone who gave up chips for Lent and then during Holy Week would give up any eating between meals. Maybe this year you should just focus on doing the Good Friday day of fasting well. One full meal, and then two other smaller “meals” that added together don’t equal more than the full meal (and no meat).

For prayer, certainly keep up whatever you’re doing for Lent; but a great thing to do during Holy Week is to read through the Passion narratives in each of the 4 Gospels. You might also read through some meditations on something like the Seven Last Words of Jesus. Spend some time in personal prayer, and you can even supplement that by watching some depictions of the life of Jesus during the week, like “Jesus of Nazareth” or “The Chosen”.

Lastly, and most importantly, the category of “you & others” – the BEST way to enter into Holy Week is to attend some or all of the special Masses and Liturgies. We come together as the Christian community for Palm Sunday Mass, The Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday (where the priest will wash the feet of 12 people, as Jesus did for the Apostles), the Good Friday Service (where we venerate the Cross and reflect on Jesus’ death), and of course Mass for Easter (especially the Easter Vigil if you can, which is an amazing Mass if you’ve never been – and you might even see some adults get Baptized, Confirmed, and receive Communion for the first time!)

If all we do is go to Mass on Palm Sunday and then again on Easter and go about our normal routine for the week in between, we’re missing out! If we want to have an amazing experience celebrating Easter, we need to really go for it with Holy Week.  Do this, and those marshmallow peeps will taste that much sweeter on Easter morning!